Making of Champions

The 1st leg of the 2014 International Diamond League Circuit was completed in Doha on Friday (May 9th), and the race of focus for Nigerian fans was undoubtedly the women’s 100m, where the fast finishing Blessing Okagbare posted 11.18s but was ultimately held off by Jamaica’s ‘Pocket Rocket’, Double Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who clinched the win in 11.13s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-N25MLOw98

Fraser-Pryce thus stretched her head-to-head in the 100m with Okagbare to 13-3, but the Nigerian Double World Championship Medallist keeps getting closer and it will be interesting to see if she will be able to beat Fraser-Pryce this season, especially when it matters the most at the Commonwealth Games, where both athletes are expected to attempt the 100m/200m double! One thing is for certain, Blessing will need a more explosive start so that she doesn’t have too much ground to make up in the final stages of their match-ups.

While Okagbare was the only athlete representing Nigeria in Doha, there were a couple of former Nigerian Athletes representing their adopted nations very well. The biggest surprise of the night was undoubtedly in the 400m Hurdles, where the virtually unknown Kemi Adekoya, in her first race representing Bahrain, won convincingly ahead of a world class field in 54.59s, in the process setting a new National Record and a world leading time this season! That she did this from Lane 1 should serve as an ominous sign for her rivals in the 400m hurdles this season. It is a travesty the Team Nigeria cannot get the best out of our amazingly talented athletes, and that they have to seek greener pastures elsewhere to start fulfilling their great potential. What are we doing wrong? Here is what Adekoya had to say after her win (in her unmistakably Nigerian accent):

Finally, Nickel Ashmeade and Warren Weir made it a Jamaican 1-2 in the men’s 200 metres, but the third place finisher was Qatari athlete Femi Ogunode, who finished in a very respectable 20.38s. You guessed it – Ogunode is yet another Nigerian flying the flag for Qatar, whom he has competed for since 2010. He followed the footsteps of Asian 100m Record Holder Samuel Francis, who made the same switch in 2007 and promptly became the fastest man ever in Asia with the only sub-10 run (9.99s) in their history! Ogunode has already had a fantastic indoor season this year, where he won Bronze in the 60 metres at the the World Indoor Championships in March in a time of 6.52s. Interestingly, Femi’s younger brother, Tosin Ogunode, made his debut for Qatar this year, and promptly became the Asian 60m Record Holder with a time of 6.50s!

When will Nigeria start getting the best of out of our athletes and keep them competing for the Green-White-Green of the nation? Post/tweet with the hashtag #FormerNigerianAthletes to join in the discussion on the Making of Champions Facebook & Twitter pages!

The International Diamond League circuit is back for 2014! The first leg of the annual 14-city competition kicks off in Doha, Qatar tomorrow (Friday May 9th). Outside the major competitions (Olympics, World Championships, etc), the Diamond League is the competition that the world’s very best athletes compete in each year for prize money, and for a chance to be crowned the ‘Diamond Race’ winner in their respective events!

The highlight for Nigeria fans on Friday will undoubtedly be the women’s 100m where Nigeria’s Double World Championship Medallist, Blessing Okagbare will face-off against Jamaica’s Double 100m Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. The Jamaican leads in the 100m head-to-head record between the two by 12-3, with Okagbare’s most notable victory coming during the London Anniversary Games last year, when she lowered the 14-year old African 100m record, twice in the same day, to 10.86s and then 10.79s! That said, Fraser-Pryce, as the current 100m Olympic and World Champion, has made it count when it mattered the most.

Okagbare started her 100m season with a solid 11.19s run into a strong headwind on Saturday at the Jamaica Invitational in Kingston, while Fraser-Pryce opted for the 200m in that same event, winning in 22.53s. Given that Fraser-Pryce has already been quoted as saying that Okagbare will be her strongest competition at the Commonwealth Games this year, it will be interesting to follow their head-to-heads throughout the Diamond League season! How close can Blessing get to the world’s most decorated female athlete?

For Nigerian viewers, SuperSport 9 (DSTV Channel 209) will show the Doha Diamond League meet LIVE from 5 – 7pm Nigerian time tomorrow. The women’s 100m is scheduled for 6.09pm, so be sure to tune in to see Okagbare race Fraser-Pryce, and a bevy of other top track stars, including Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart, and the American trio of Alexandria Anderson, English Gardner and Barbara Pierre!

Other races of interest tomorrow? USA’s 400m World Champion, LeShawn Merritt should lead all comers in the men’s 400m at 5.26pm, while Jamaica’s 200m Olympic Bronze Medallist, Warren Weir, should take the men’s 200m at 6.36pm – do look out for Nigerian-born Qatari athlete, Femi Ogunode in that race too!

Making of Champions will be bringing you special updates and reports ahead of, during and after each Diamond League event in 2014, with a particular focus on Nigeria’s leading athletes such as Blessing Okagbare and Regina George – stay tuned!

2014 IAAF Diamond League calendar

Doha, QAT – 9 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May
Rome, ITA – 5 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 11 Jun
New York, USA – 14 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 3 Jul
Paris, FRA – 5 Jul
Glasgow, GBR – 11-12 Jul
Monaco, MON – 18 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 21 Aug
Birmingham, GBR – 24 Aug
Zurich, SUI – 28 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 5 Sep

The Ibile Games, the Lagos State Sports Festival involving up to 162 secondary schools participating in Athletics, Basketball, Football, Boxing, Table Tennis and many other sports kicked off last Wednesday (April 30th), but it would seem that most Lagosians are not aware that the games are going on, and this has led to low attendances at most events so far. Indeed, Vanguard news reported on Sunday that Lagosians have shunned the Ibile Games, but it is more likely (as the article later hints) that most Lagosians don’t actually know that it is happening! A member of the Local Organising Committee for the Games was quoted as saying “The low turnout of spectators cannot be as a result of poor publicity. We organised street shows, billboards, banners and radio jingles to announce the Games. The spectators may have other reasons which can be mere apathy.”

Lagosians – what do you think? Why aren’t you attending the games? Is it because you hadn’t heard about them, or is it that you have no interest in attending and supporting Nigeria’s future sports stars? Tweet @MakingOfChamps and connect with us on Facebook with the hashtag #IbileGames2014 – we want to hear from you!

The Making of Champions team will be at the Ibile Games later in the week, to report on the Athletics, which is the sport with by far the most entries, with 129 schools entering (compared to 104 for Table Tennis, 53 for Basketball, and 33 for Boxing). Athletics will take place at the mainbowl of Teslim Balogun Stadium from Wednesday May 7th to Friday May 9th, with an additional day for the Athletics Finals on Saturday May 10th, during the final weekend of the Games! Come out to support Nigeria’s future CHAMPIONS!

Can Team Naija return to winning ways at the Olympics?  Follow@makingofchamps on Instagram and Twitter, and like Facebook.com/makingofchamps, to be part of #LetsMakeChamps, the exciting new Social Media Campaign for MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, Nigeria’s new Olympic movement to create Champions in Track & Field!

It would seem that Blessing Okagbare, Nigeria’s No 1 sprinting talent, is already returning to fine form for the 2014 Athletics Season. Last night she featured in the 100m at the Jamaica Invitational meet in Kingston, where she completely blew the rest of the world-class field away in a time of 11.19s. She looks set to provide a strong challenge to Jamaica’s Double 100m Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, for 100m GOLD at the Commonwealth Games in July/August!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6nUnF6G8cc

In some quarters, Saturday’s race had been billed as a showdown between Okagbare and Fraser-Pryce, but the Jamaican opted for the 200 metres instead, winning in a time of 22.53s. Despite not going head-to-head with Fraser-Pryce in Kingston, Okagbare still had some worthy competition in the 100 metres, including Jamaica’s 100m Silver Medallist from the Beijing Olympics, Kerron Stewart, and America’s up and coming athletes, English Gardner and Alexandria Anderson, both Silver Medallists for Team USA in the 4x100m Relay at the 2013 World Championships.

The winning time of 11.19s may not seem super-impressive at first glance, but it should be noted that the race was run into a headwind of -1.7m/s, so in better conditions, Okagbare’s race on Saturday would be much closer to 11 seconds flat – a great run to start her 100 metre season. As one can see from this race, Blessing is usually not the fastest starter but if she’s still in the mix after 60 metres, she has the best top speed in women’s sprinting, which helps her breeze past the opposition in the final stages of the race! If her form continues this way, she’ll be a sure bet for Commonwealth Games medals in the 100m & 200m (and the Long Jump too) come August – does she have what it takes to beat Fraser-Pryce to GOLD in either race? We won’t have long to wait to find out!

Can Team Naija return to winning ways at the highest level of sprinting? Follow@makingofchamps on Instagram and Twitter, and like Facebook.com/makingofchamps, to be part of #LetsMakeChamps, the exciting new Social Media Campaign for MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, Nigeria’s new Olympic movement to create Champions in Track & Field!

The news broke yesterday that former 100m & 200m Double World Champion, the joint 2nd fastest man in history, Tyson Gay, has received a reduced one-year doping ban, for testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid at the US World Championship Trials last year. In Track & Field, taking anabolic steroids to enhance performance is usually seen as a more serious offence than taking banned supplements, and normally attracts a minimum ban of 2 years, which is due to increase to 4 years as of 2015.

As such, the brevity of Gay’s ban will indeed surprise many Athletics observers around the world, many of whom may well have thought that Gay’s positive test, at the ‘ripe’ age of 30, and his subsequent suspension may well have signalled the end of his illustrious sprinting career. Instead, amazingly, Tyson Gay will be eligible to return to the track as early as next month, because his 1 year ban has been back-dated to 23rd June 2013, the date of his last positive test at the US Trials last year! It is said that Gay’s immediate co-operation with the US doping officials was a factor in the leniency of his ban – when the news of his positive tests broke, he was quoted as saying “I don’t have a sabotage story…I basically put my trust in someone and was let down. I know exactly what went on, but I can’t discuss it right now. I hope I am able to run again, but I will take whatever punishment I get like a man.”

It would seem that Gay was suggesting that he did not know that whatever he was taking was banned, but knew who gave it to him. Indeed, it was later reported that he had multiple positives over a short period of time last year, which was likely seen as a sign of that he wasn’t trying to hide anything, but simply didn’t know he was taking a banned drug. Despite his initial ignorance and subsequent co-operation, many will argue that the leniency of the ban will send the wrong message to Drug Cheats all over the world – simply plead ignorance, co-operate, and by the time your case is heard, you’ll be ready to compete again. Essentially, the length of his ban for taking anabolic steroids is akin to nothing more than one-season injury layoff, in terms of his time out on the sidelines. Is this the right signal to drug cheats, given that the same offence will attract a 4-year ban as of next year? 

Even Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, Jamaican star athletes who last year tested positive for banned supplement Oxilofrine, last month received 18-month bans and will be eligible to compete again by the end of the year, though Powell has vowed to clear his name. If they got 18 months for a banned supplement, should Gay really have received just 1 year for an anabolic steroid, which it turns out that he may have been taking as far back as the London 2012 Olympics? Indeed, he has returned his Olympic 4x100m Silver Medal, as it has now been revealed that all his results since 15 July 2012, the date he first used a product containing a banned substance, have been annulled. Only time will tell if all USA’s 4x100m team will be stripped of that Silver medal, much like they were stripped of the 4x400m Gold at Sydney 2000, for which Nigeria was eventually awarded the GOLD medal after the late Antonio Pettigrew admitted to using banned substances during that period.

Considering that the next major competition for US athletes will be the World Championships in August 2015, an 18-month or 2-year ban will have still allowed him to return in time for that. One thing is for certain, despite being the fastest American in history, the rest of his career will likely be shrouded in skepticism by his positive drugs test and suspension, even if he is able to return to the dizzying speeds he once reached, and beat the likes of Usain Bolt again! THREE of Team USA’s current active sprinters, Justin Gatlin, Mike Rodgers and now Tyson Gay have now all received drug bans at some stage of their careers – despite Jamaica’s recent troubles, the Islanders look set to continue dominating the global sprinting landscape for some time to come!

That said, the fact that even the most high profile athletes are getting caught for drug offences, should hopefully convince other sprinting nations currently in the doldrums, such as Nigeria, that the playing field has been levelled significantly, and that we can compete with the world’s best if we want to. Can Team Naija return to winning ways at the highest level of sprinting? Follow @makingofchamps on Instagram and Twitter, and like Facebook.com/makingofchamps to be part of #LetsMakeChamps, the exciting new Social Media Campaign for MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, Nigeria’s new Olympic movement to create Champions in Track & Field!

Regina George anchors 4x400m women to 2nd place with storming final leg run!

The annual Penn Relays took place in the US over the weekend, and Team Nigeria’s recently hired Relay Co-ordinator, former 100m world record holder Maurice Greene, will have been given some insight into Nigeria’s chances at the upcoming inaugural World Relays competition set to take place in the Bahamas on May 24th/25th. The brightest story for Team Nigeria coming out of the Penn Relays undoubtedly was the 2nd place finish of the 4x400m women’s team in a time of 3:27.16, helped in no small part by current 2-time Nigeria 400m CHAMPION, Regina George, who received the baton on the anchor leg nearly 2 seconds behind Team USA and Jamaica, but ran an amazing 50.49s split to overhaul Jamaica’s Shericka Williams in the final metres, to finish 2nd behind Team USA! With some improvement, Nigeria’s 4x400m women look set to challenge the likes of Team GB and Jamaica for Relay medals in the 4x400m at the Commonwealth Games in July/August. George also looks set to soon become Nigeria’s first sub-50 second Quarter-Miler since the likes of Falilat Ogunkoya, Fatima Yusuf and Charity Opara in the 90’s, who were part of Nigeria’s awesome 4x400m Olympic Silver Medal winning team of Atlanta ’96, where they just lost out to Team USA for the GOLD in a breath-taking race!

Regina George’s unravelling story as a potential future Olympic and World Championship medallist for Nigeria is both intriguing and inspiring – born in the US, she competed as a Junior for Team USA at the World Junior Championships in 2010 (where she was beaten by 2 Nigerians in the 400m final), before making the switch to her fatherland Nigeria. She has since then instantly become Nigeria’s number one 400m Athlete, winning the Nigerian 400m title in both 2012 and 2013. She is certainly one of Nigeria’s brightest hopes for an individual Olympic Medal at Rio 2016, and Making of Champions covered her amazing story last year in this insightful interview highlighting her accomplishments so far in the Green of Nigeria (below)!  All Team Nigeria fans should get behind Regina George and encourage her as she continues to do the country proud –  one can only hope that she posts some amazing times in 2014 and wins a Commonwealth Games medal that will get her more attention in Nigeria, and more support in her quest to be a medal contender at Rio 2016!

The men’s relay teams for Nigeria unfortunately did not perform as well as the women’s 4x400m at the Penn Relays this past weekend. The men’s 4x400m finished in 5th place out of 5 teams in a time of 3:05.05, over 4 seconds behind the Golden Knights of the Bahamas (of London 2012 GOLD medal fame), and over 6 seconds behind the Nigerian and African Record (2:58.68), set by the Gold medal winning team from the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The men’s 4x100m also finished 6th out of 6 teams, in a time of 39.89s, which happens to be slower than the current Jamaican Schoolboy Relay record, held by a secondary school called Calabar High School in Jamaica (that’s a story for another time)…here’s another story of the weekend from a Nigerian perspective – a cursory look at the roster for Team Qatar, which finished in 5th place (Tosin Ogunode, Samuel Francis, Femi Ogunode, Eid Al-Kuwari) will show the obvious, that THREE of them are Nigerians, including Samuel Francis, who is the Asian 100m Record Holder at 9.99s! 

Imagine how good Team Naija would be if we kept all our best athletes competing for Nigeria?

A couple of weeks ago on the Sports Tonight Show on Channels TV, the show’s host, Toyin Ibitoye and Making of Champions Founder, Bambo Akani, discussed the appointment a couple of weeks ago of the former 100m World Record holder, Maurice Greene, as Team Nigeria’s Relay Coordinator for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July/August and the African Championships in Marrakech in August. The appointment has been seen as controversial in many quarters, not least by Nigerian Olympic GOLD Medallist, Enefiok Udo-Obong, who did not mince words in his blog when saying that he felt it was a waste of resources, especially given that 2 other Americans, Angie Taylor and Eric Campbell, are already at the helm of Nigerian Sports, as National Performance Director, and Performance Director for Athletics.

Despite Greene’s legendary status in the World of Athletics, questions are already being asked as to what appreciable impact he could possibly have on our athletes in 3 months, especially given that since his running days, he is more renowned as a pundit for Eurosport, and for a brief stint on the television show Dancing with the Stars…indeed the poor performance of Team Nigeria at the Mt SAC Relays in California over the weekend suggests that he will have his work cut out for him ahead of the Commonwealth Games – watch this space for more updates!

Hi All,

Hi All,

Making of Champions does football! To round off 2013, we just wanted to bring you some news about a new documentary project leading up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! The Road to Brazil is the 2nd documentary from the MAKING OF CHAMPIONS’ stable!! Come with us on the journey of following the progress of Nigeria’s Super Eagles as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! In this Road to Brazil teaser, we journey to Salvador, Brazil’s third largest city – a city infused with food, culture, language and religion heavily influenced by Yoruba slaves taken there hundreds of years ago! We were in Salvador during the World Cup draw, and the World Cup FEVER and EXCITEMENT was palpable!! Here’s what Brazilians and an Argentinian fan there think about Nigeria’s chances at the World Cup!!

The Making of The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”

The Road to Brazil was shot over 4 days in Salvador, during the period of the World Cup draw, where Nigeria was drawn against Argentina (once again!), Bosnia and Iran in Group F. It was an amazing journey of discovery – it was particularly fascinating to note the immense impact that Nigerian culture has had in this region Brazil, where most of it’s inhabitants proudly identify themselves as descended from Africa. They have their own versions of some typical Nigerian food like Akara and Moinmoin (called ‘Acaraje’ and ‘Abará’), and besides Christianity, the main religion practised here is Candomblé, which developed as a form of ‘Syncretism’ between Catholicism and the traditional religion (mainly Yoruba) of the slaves who were taken to Brazil from Africa between 1549 and 1888, and were made to go to Catholic Church – instead they took each one of the Catholic Saints as one of their ‘Orishas’ (Yoruba gods), and Candomblé developed from there…

Not many people would know this in Nigeria, but interestingly, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife in Nigeria offers a Portuguese degree, and every year for the past 20 years or more, they have sent a small group of students doing the course for a year abroad programme at UFBA (Universidade Federal da Bahia) in Salvador to master their grasp of the language. These students did an amazing job of supporting the Road to Brazil shoot, making themselves available to interview the locals in Portuguese and doing some translation work to help with English subtitles for the documentary! In the near future we’ll release some more Road to Brazil teasers, featuring these amazing exchange students sending the Super Eagles and all Nigerians messages of encouragement (in Portuguese) to come to Brazil to support the Super Eagles at the World Cup!

The icing on the cake for the Road to Brazil shoot was the involvement of former Nigerian International, Richard Owubokiri, in the project. Known fondly as Ricky in Brazil and Portugal, he achieved legend status in both countries, after being one of the top scorers in both the Brazilian league in the 80’s (with Vitoria Football Club of Salvador) and the Portuguese league in the early 90’s (with Boavista). Indeed, the contrasting story of his careers for club and country and why his fortunes at International level for Nigeria did not quite match his glittering, prolific club career, is one of the untold stories of Nigerian football that we will bring you in The Road to Brazil: “Salvador”!

Watch this space in early 2014 for more news on The Road to Brazil – More pictures and video teasers coming soon! In the meantime, share this teaser – all Nigerians need to see this and get behind the Super Eagles to do wonders at the World Cup – “In the final – Nigeria and Brazil!”

It’s been a long road, but the International Roadshow for Making of Champions: “The History”, which has taken us to 4 different cities across 3 continents, is finally over! It’s been a gruelling schedule, but over the past month, we’ve hosted viewings of the film in London, Lagos, Abuja, Atlanta, and we finished off where we started, in London on Saturday! It’s been an amazing journey, and the reaction to the film has been overwhelming! Some of the highlights of the roadshow included showing the film to the AFN President, AFN Technical Director and Nigeria’s new Performance Directors in Abuja, to Innocent Egbunike in Atlanta, and to Glory Alozie in London!

Glory Alozie is the last Nigerian to win an Olympic Silver medal in Athletics, at Sydney 2000. Despite having competed for Spain in the latter part of her career, in an awesome show of support for the film and for Nigerian Athletics, she travelled all the way from her base in Valencia to join the final viewing of the film in London! This undoubtedly added immeasurably to the occasion – following the viewing, Alozie, who features in the film, participated in the Q&A with the film’s Director, Bambo Akani. Alozie’s presence certainly put the gloss on the occasion.

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Nigerian Athletics fans may recall that in one of the most tragic stories in the history of the sport, Alozie lost her then fiancé to a car accident in Australia, literally days before the Sydney Olympics began – despite being right in the midst of that period of grief and mourning, she still picked herself up to win an Olympic Silver Medal for Nigeria in the 100 metre hurdles, only missing out on Gold by 3 hundredths of a second!

In one of the most touching moments of the Q&A, the realisation of the enormity of her feat back then drew an emotional applause from the audience…She is one of only 3 athletes ever (and the last one) to win an Individual Olympic medal running for Nigeria (Onyali and Ogunkoya were the other two – Ajunwa and Okagbare both won Long Jump medals). Since Alozie’s Silver at Sydney 2000, Nigeria has only managed 4 Bronze medals in Track & Field at the Olympics – 2 at Athens ’04 and 2 at Beijing ’08!

The Q&A was filmed, and we’ll be releasing snippets of the recording in the New Year. Watch out for upcoming news in the New Year, about the plans for Making of Champions: “The History” in 2014 – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!